HITS Information

The HIV Infant Tracking system is a tool developed in response to a simple need - the tracking of infants born to HIV-positive mothers in under-resourced nations around the world.

Too often, when an infant is born to an HIV-positive mother in many places around our world, that infant is assumed to be on death's doorstep at birth. Expectations are low and hope is distant for the child's health. By reducing months to days by tracking of specimens and reporting of results, the HIT System seeks to assist in insuring the early-initiation of ART for HIV-positive infants and to relieve social stigma for infants who have not contracted the virus.

The "US" are a small collection of individuals, 501c3 and for-profit organizations who have hearts to improve the delivery of help to our world's poorest citizens:

The facilitation of HIV DNA PCR testing of perinatally-exposed infants, and the subsequent early-initiation of ART when identified as positive has proven to increase infant survival by 75% in resource-limited countries. Many governmental and non-governmental organizations have rolled out PMTCT and Early-Infant Diagnosis (EID) programs to provide vital interventions to care for mothers and infants affected by HIV/AIDS. Although many countries are now beginning to provide PMTCT, EID and pediatric ART programs, there is overwhelming evidence demonstrating severe gaps in these programs that are preventing beneficial outcomes.

Improved infant survival is based on several factors, including:

The ability to provide PCP prophylaxis (Cotrimoxazole) to all exposed infants at six weeks of age

Test exposed infants at 4-6 weeks of age using HIV DNA PCR

Return test results promptly, and

Locate/notify parents and initiate ART before 12 weeks of age

The HIT System is a simple, but robust, software tool that assists clinicians and country managers by tracking all patient HIV DNA PCR samples, patient results and the tracking of mother and infant once infants are identified as positive or negative to ensure appropriate medical care within defined time-frames.

The tool functions in “real-time” and alerts individual clinics, clinicians, PMTCT & EID administrators and M&E managers on a daily basis when a designated step in the process is not implemented within in the designated time frame.

The HIT System has the unique ability to communicate to and from sites via internet. However, we fully recognize that many rural sites in resource-limited areas do not have the capacity to accommodate reliable internet. Thus, the HIT System also has the ability to communicate via SMS Printers, SMS texting, and through mobile-broadband where available.